“North Dakota has been the poster child for what can happen when we unleash free enterprise and allow states to develop and commercialize their resources,” Heritage’s Nick Loris wrote recently on The Foundry. “North Dakota is drilling at record pace.”

North Dakota’s embrace of hydraulic fracturing and drilling have turned towns into popular destinations for new businesses and people seeking jobs. Loris pointed to Williston, N.D., as one example of a community transformed as a result of energy production.

Bloomberg reported this week that oil production has nearly quadrupled and employment in the energy sector is up by 185 percent. Those figures are based on an economic forecast from IHS Global Insight that showed North Dakota was the fastest state to return to “peak employment.”

It’s not the only state to benefit from energy production. The IHS Global Insight forecast listed energy-rich Alaska and Texas as other beneficiaries. Alaska has already returned to peak employment and Texas is expected to do so in the first quarter of 2012. Nebraska and South Dakota will also return to pre-recession levels next year.

“If the goal is to promote rapid job creation — and that’s what most policymakers tell us — then the obvious solution is to remove government obstacles to the rapid development of such domestic resources,” Robert Murphy, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, wrote in the Washington Examiner.

The map below from IHS Global Insight shows when states are expected to return to peak employment.

Join The Discussion

It isn't very surprising that HArry Reid and Nancy Pelosi's states aren't predicted to return to peak until at least 2016. Is that why they keep getting re-elected? Are the people in their states dumb, uniformed, or just voting for a party no matter what they provide?

what productive role did the feds play? It's a great example of where fed involvement in any private business only adds complications consuming time and money in comparison of where they don't exist, promotes ambitions, contentment and freedom. Oh and livable jobs less the expense of unnecessary government overreach!

over the summer we visited south dakota (beautiful state for the most part) and were given the good news regarding the north! awesome! as soon as we know the near future role of the feds, we might be able to move to a state where men take pride in providing for their own and respects no man rules over another!

how would every state benefit from renewed energy production if Obama would reconsider his green agenda? what's stopping you from investing in your own interests and making it big if it's that productive? You need one person to reconsider what doesn't work and is unsustainable? has government manipulation stolen your ability to think with reason and rationale and for yourself without Obama/government ties? gosh, I hope not!

With the EPA , Interior,BLM,DOE doing everything to scuttle energy production, its a miracle ND has been able to succeed. Here in TX. the Feds are threatening to shut down ALL drilling by declaring a lizzard as endangered

Killing jobs and energy exploration and production are two things this administration seems to be quite good at. The "green agenda" is an agenda of death for our economy. Thanks Rob for great reporting!

Interesting, but I'm not sure where the author gets the figure of 13,700 jobs created. Follow the Bureau of Labor Statistics link and under "Table E. States with statistically significant employment changes from
January 2011 to January 2012, seasonally adjusted" it reads 21,900 jobs created in North Dakota over the year.

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